What should be fares for AC local?

In the last post I wrote about the problems that need to be addressed in Mumbai’s AC locals. Today let us have a close look at one of those issues – fare structure.

IR has been very lazy in deciding AC local fares. First big mistake was pricing AC local journey tickets at 1.3 times of non AC first class (referred to as FC from now) fare. This pretty much priced it out of consideration of non MST travellers (once in a while commuters). For season tickets they simply picked up existing formula of NON AC fares & applied it to AC. What prevented IR from making different rules for AC MST?

One argument supporting 1.3x FC fare for journey ticket is that it is still cheaper than an Ola/Uber. Completely agreed. But then what is the sample size of Ola/Uber users? I am sure it is not more than 5% of daily commuters. So if IR’s target audience for AC rakes is such a low percentage of total passengers, how do they expect to fill up 12 coach fully AC rakes with just Ola & Uber users? The target audience should be much wider than this! Any aam aadmi does not think twice before choosing a metro for single journey. Honestly tell me, will he choose AC local without hesitation when its single journey ticket is priced thrice of metro ticket? It is simply not affordable to the majority.

The solution:
IR should immediately slash the single journey ticket price & price it somewhere between non AC second class & first class. I would say it should be around 0.5 to 0.6 times the first class fare. This will raise many eyebrows, but we should change with times. Non AC first class is a concept that has become obsolete in today’s times. Even AC chair car fares are lower than non AC FC on long distance trains, so why can’t AC local fare be lower than non AC FC? This is the only way to lure more people to AC rakes from second class. Metro has already proved that people are ready to pay a slight premium for AC travel. 1.3 times FC fare is not going to work. Period.

Now coming to season ticket. Let’s compare Mumbai metro line 1 & AC local. Mumbai metro line 1 has one of the highest fare in all metros. End to end journey ticket (11 km) is Rs 40 (it will be Rs 20 for other metro lines in Mumbai). Comparable AC rake journey ticket is Rs 90.

Now what is the monthly unlimited trip pass rate for both of these? Metro line 1 costs Rs 1400 which is 35 single journeys. And AC locals? Just Rs 885, which is not even the cost of 10 single journeys. IR is literally selling MST for peanuts.

Let’s say AC local single journey ticket for this distance is changed to Rs 40 (which is 0.6 times first class ticket). MST can be kept at 25 single journey to start with, which comes to Rs 1000. The increase of Rs 115 compared to the current Rs 885 MST rate is not unreasonable for AC travel. This fare structure will ensure more patronage by journey ticket holders. The increase in ticket holders at low fare can even lead to increase in total revenue from journey tickets. Two people purchasing a Rs 40 ticket is almost same as 1 person travelling on a Rs 90 ticket. I am sure the lower fare will not just double the passenger count. The increase will be higher. So there will be dual benefit of improved patronage + nearly same or more revenue from ticket sales. Revenue from MST sales will also see a rise in this structure.

IR badly needs to try out this fare structure. There are chances that it may not work, as you can never predict public sentiment in India. But if there is any fare structure that has a good chance of turning AC local’s fortunes, it is this. At the present fare structure the services are not going to succeed anyway. So what is the harm in trying?

Do leave your thoughts in the comments section!

PS:

1. I have just taken 1 sample fare slab for comparison & demonstration of what needs to be changed. Some tweaks may be needed in actual implementation.
2. I have assumed a fare of 0.6x FC fare for journey tickets. That is the maximum point at which AC locals can be priced. Ideally it should be priced even lower.
3. The fare structure also needs to be complemented with a reasonable availability of services. If there is 1 service every 2 hours then there is no hope of success.

Air conditioned locals – IR’s huge planning failure

Yesterday Central Railway introduced the first ever air conditioned EMU on mainline between Kalyan & CSMT. With this event, the debate on AC rake fares & coach composition has started again. Few months ago I had written a post on this subject in a private forum. I thought it would be great to share it here for wider audience. Here it is:

A few facts before I get into the details – 5 Air conditioned EMUs have been turned out for WR having BHEL electricals. 6th one having underslung MEDHA electricals (based on train 18) is also despatched few months ago, and there are no details available about the progress of it’s trials. Currently only 1 rake is in use by WR.

Dates when these rakes were despatched: 10/09/2019, 14/11/2019, 10/08/2019, 17/05/2019, 20/02/2019 (underslung), 31/03/2016.

Now lets have a deep dive into the details: As you can see, a considerable time has passed even after the newest despatch. It looks like no one in the administration is willing to bite the bullet and replace more non AC rakes with AC rakes. Doing this will result in huge backlash of commuters. As a result, 4 rakes worth crores of rupees are idling in carshed daily. After CR receives their share of 6 rakes, the same situation might get replicated there as well.

In my opinion, the AC rake project is completely mismanaged. There was no planning of operations & fare structure before manufacturing the rakes. Someone sitting in Rail bhawan ordered manufacture of full AC rakes, and they were manufactured without any study of the optimal way of introducing them into service. This has resulted into a great mess where the existing rakes cannot be replaced with AC rakes. Had there been a systematic study, IR would have realised that

1. New slots are not available for services, hence existing services will have to be replaced.
2. If 1 is done, then commuters won’t be happy at all, as it will lead to overcrowding in other services.
3. So semi AC locals may be needed
4. If at all they implement 1, then pricing the services above existing first class fares & expecting metro like ridership is foolish
5. Hence, a long term coordinated plan of action is necessary for introduction of AC rakes which will address concerns of all stakeholders

Current situation of fares & ridership is somewhat like this:

1. The fare of AC rake is 1.3 times FC fares. That makes journey tickets out of bounds for more than 90% pax. Hence non peak direction & holiday services run virtually empty.
2. Thanks to the ridiculously cheap MSTs, the season tickets are easily affordable to almot anyone who can afford a first class season ticket. That results in peak direction services getting very good patronage.

Now coming to some possible solutions:

There are 2 ways of handling this. First is to introduce partial AC rakes and convert all rakes to partial AC. Let us look into details of this.

• Existing rakes have electricals manufactured by Siemens, Bombardier & Medha. IR will need to work with these vendors to develop systems for partial AC rakes compatible with existing rakes. If the coach frame design permits, converting some existing coaches into AC coaches can be looked at, instead of manufacturing new coaches. Many Siemens rakes are more than 12 years old. Economic feasibility of converting them into AC coaches will have to be examined.
• First class should be abolished and AC class should be introduced in its place, with more space in rake than is currently given for first class.

Second way is to go the metro way, and introduce full AC rakes on large scale. For this, if conversion of existing rakes is not possible then transferring them to Delhi, Chennai & Kolkata will have to be looked into.

But 1 thing is for sure – Whatever they do, IR needs to sit and make a foolproof plan first before implementing anything. Otherwise it will result in a disaster like the present one. For both the above ways there will be transition period in which some rakes will be running with old configuration & some will be modified. The transition should be handled smoothly with proper communication through various channels. The existance of first class will have to be given a hard relook. If full AC rakes are introduced alongside non AC rakes, then FC should be abolished from non AC rakes. However there should be adequate number of AC rakes as replacement for FC.

Some suggest having 2 classes of AC coaches. I feel that won’t work. There is hardly anything that will be a distinguishing factor. It will be just like current FC & SC – cushioned seats being only differentiator.

Fare:

The current fare structure is not at all feasible. The problem with fare is applying non AC fare formula to AC. It has made journey tickets ridiculously overpriced while MST are ridiculously cheap. They need to reduce journey ticket fare to lure non daily passengers & hike MST rates to remain viable operationally. It needs to be more on the lines of metro fares to get decent ridership. The journey ticket should be priced lower than first class tickets. This will encourage the occasional commuters & non peak hour commuters to use the rakes as well. However MSTs should cost at least 5 return journeys more than non AC MSTs. This is the model generally followed by metro.

Well folks, those are my thoughts on this subject. My way of expressing them has not been the most organised, pardon me for that. Please share your opinions, comments on the same!

Very poor quality of Latest rakes from ICF

CR is receiving brand new rakes with Bombardier electricals manufactured at ICF Chennai. I have been pointing out poor quality of ICF manufactured rakes continuously over the last few years through this blog. The newest rakes are no different. Railway enthusiast Vijay Aaravamudhan travelled in CR’s newest Bombardier rake & here is what he reports:

Reviews of brand new BT Rake of CR 5317-5320

1. Multiple shades of pink. Red, purple used above doors as looks too shabby and worst.

2. Hotch potch painting finishing by ICF.

3. Already observed multiple cracks on the plastic panel walls inside 5319A and many cracks filled with white cement type material.

4. Plain white painted surface also has dirty purple painting lining, spoiling the looks of the rake.

5. Multiple scratches observed on the pink band below the windows.

Above: Cracks in the wall panels and patches applied

Above: Hotch potch worst quality paint finishing. Due to hasty and improper covering of white painted area, violet paint droplets have got sprayed on white paint at multiple places.

This is what Vijay observed. It is pathetic that in spite of so many complaints about ICF quality through various channels, ICF & IR is doing nothing to improve things. In order to show records of number of coaches manufactured, ICF is turning out scrap in name of modern rakes.

Air conditioned local from tomorrow, but is it’s implementation correct?

In what can be called a Christmas gift to Mumbaikars, the much awaited & much delayed air conditioned local train will finally be in service of Mumbaikars from tomorrow. It’s first trip will be from Andheri to Churchgate at 2.10 pm. Thereafter it will be operated on 12 services per day as follows:

Origin, Destination, Departure from origin, arrival at destination

MX-BVI 06.58 07.50.

BVI-CCG 07.54 08.50.

CCG-VR 08.54 10.13.

VR-CCG 10.22 11.46.

CCG-VR 11.50 01.10.

VR-CCG 13.18 14.44.

CCG-VR 14.55 16.14.

VR-CCG 16.22 17.42.

CCG-BVI 17.40 18.41.

BVI-CCG 18.55 19.44.

CCG-VR 19.49 21.15.

VR-CCG 21.25 22.49

(Legend: MX-Mahalaxmi, CCG-Churchgate, BVI-Borivali, VR-Virar)

While this is good news, I have serious objections to the way it is going to be operated. The services which will be operated by AC rake are currently operated by regular non AC rake. From tomorrow onwards, the normal services will be replaced by AC service. I strongly disagree with this decision. The AC train should have been strictly run as additional services only. Normal ticket/pass holders won’t be able to use  these 12 services now. They are left with no option but to use the previous or next services. The next & previous services will have to accommodate an entire train load of extra commuters from tomorrow. It will definitely lead to overcrowding. Imagine the effects of a Virar fast cancelled in peak evening hours – that is what will happen from tomorrow, every single day.

The second sore point is operation on weekends. It is ok to not operate the AC rake on weekends as it may not find enough commuters. However this will result in reduction of 12 services on weekends, which were previously operated by non AC rakes. I’ve personally seen many of these services which will be converted to AC from tomorrow. They have good crowds on all days of the week. At least non AC rakes should be operated on these services on the weekend. 

Not everyone can afford AC rake travel. Withdrawing normal services which used to run full & operating AC service in its place is wrong. I hope authorities will give due consideration to these important points and take corrective measures at the earliest. 

EDIT: An interesting response I received on Twitter:

During evening peak hours for a male passenger, after 7:33 PM next Virar local would be at 7:56 PM. 23 mins between 2 trains during peak hours. Disaster waiting to happen.

— Kishan Kanjan (@kishankanjan) December 24, 2017

23 minutes between 2 Virar fast in evening is really too high and sure recipe for disaster

CR introduces first Bombardier rake in service

Central Railway inducted their first Bombardier rake into the fleet today morning. The rake number is 5241-5244. It is an ex WR rake which is around 1 year old. It was a long pending demand that Central railway commuters too should get some of the new Bombardier rakes. There is some reason to cheer for the commuters now! Compared to Siemens rakes, Bombardier rakes offer improved & smoother ride, better ventilation system, less noise. I was at Thane station to see the rake in service on CR. I captured it on my camera as well. Here is a link to the video:

In the next few months, CR will get a total of 24 Bombardier rakes. Of these, 13 will be transferred to CR from WR. These will be the newest rakes of WR which are just one year old. The rest 11 will be brand new rakes manufactured at ICF Chennai. Originally, new Medha rakes were allotted to CR. However CR was reluctant to operate these rakes. Hence a solution was worked out that these 13 Medha rakes will be allotted to WR instead, while WR will transfer the newest 13 Bombardier rakes to CR in lieu of Medha rakes.

Railway board makes scathing remarks on AC local

Member of Railway Board (rolling stock) inspected various railway facilities in Mumbai a couple of months ago. The notes from this visit have been uploaded on IR’s website. Railway board member has made some harsh remarks about the air conditioned EMU rake which is currently undergoing testing. A short summary of the remarks:

1. He notes that the rake is badly delayed due to some issues which could not be resolved. He appears to be unhappy with the progress of trials. Thus RDSO and BHEL have been asked to submit the final timeline for commissioning of the rake & also submit detailed schedule of all tests to be carried out on the rake.
2. ICF has been asked to fix responsibility for manufacturing the rake with 4335 mm height even though max allowed height is 4275 mm on Central Railway
3. Various deficiencies were noted in the rake with regards to high noise, vibrations, improper interiors & internal furnishings. These issues need to be addressed before pressing the rake into service. Some of the issues are:
   1. Very high level of noise when AC units are switched on. It should be brought down to permissible noise levels
   2. Low height of luggage racks
   3. Projections over seating area due to large size
   4. AC unit height is more than permissible height
   5. Vestibule (portion that allows walking from one coach to other) and floor are at different heights causing uneven flooring
   6. Vestibules are tilting, which creates gap between coaches. Design needs modification
   7. Public information system needs to be more elegant and at a better location
   8. Loose screws were found on flooring & flooring sheets were uneven
   9. Grab handles were broken. A sturdier design needs to be used
   10. Height of grab handles should also be looked into
   11. AC unit in motorman’s cab blows cold air directly on the back of motorman which will be uncomfortable for him
   12. CCTV camera should be provided
   13. LED lights should be used
   14. Number of fans should be reduced and their speed too should be reduced

It looks like the rake has many deficiencies & was hurriedly despatched from ICF. There is still no clarity on when it will be inducted into regular service. That day does seem to be quite far off.

During the inspection of Matunga workshop, Siemens rake motorcoaches too were inspected. Recently CR has been hit by a spate of cracks in bolsters of Siemens EMUs. A bogie bolster is the central section of the bogie that carries the entire weight of a coach on it. Cracks in such a critical component is a safety issue. CR has been working proactively to ensure all rakes are in a condition fit to run. These issues are most probably due to poor manufacturing/quality control at ICF. In his notes, member of board is critical of this as well. He says:

1. From January 2017 to February 2017, 24 cases of cracks in bolster have been reported. 2 coaches having cracks were inspected
2. As this is a critical item for safety, ICF was asked to come up with suitable repair procedures quickly. The repairs should be carries out by manufacturer of bogies under supervision of ICF
3. ICF should trace manufacturer of each defective bolster
4. RDSO should carry out audit of manufacturing processes of suppliers.
5. Siemens rakes have started showing high levels of corrosion in various parts of coach in just 6-7 years. ICF should investigate and take corrective action on it.

Overall, this report reflects poorly on ICF. Their quality and finishing have come under criticism from the board. This is nothing new though, as the lack of quality is clearly visible even to the naked eye.

The notes from inspection can be accessed here.

High speed Siemens rakes fail tests

Three high-speed Austrian trains that were to run on Mumbai have failed the mandatory safety tests. The trains were supposed to run at the speed at 140 kmph but failed the running test at 100 kmph itself as the suspension and the stability, which are anti-derailment features, were not up to the mark. If successful, these trains were supposed to help in reducing travel time for commuters.

The three trains were procured by Railways under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project I (MUTP) and a ‘partial’ payment of the Rs 25 crore was made by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), which is the planning body for Mumbai suburban.  

MRVC’s chief managing director Prabhat Sahai said, “The trials of these trains were unsuccessful. The trains will be sent back to the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.” He added, “The electrical work of the train was manufactured by the Austrian company Seimens, which was the main component that was to enable it to go at the high-speed, but the shell of the train can still be used by the ICF and the trains may be reintroduced.”

Source

After more than 5.5 years of dilly-dally IR has finally decided to abandon this project of Siemens bogies (the frame on which wheels are attached). It would be good if the rake is reworked at ICF and sent back to Mumbai with the regular bogies. 

AC train trial run still a distant dream

While messages were being circulated on social media of a purported trial run of the air-conditioned rake between Churchgate and Virar on Wednesday evening, DNA has found that the trials could actually be several weeks away. Even some of the preliminary work that needs to be done before any rake can be tested have yet to be completed.

In reply to a query on the testing, Commissioner of Railway Safety (Western Circle) Sushil Chandra admitted as much. “I have asked Central Railway (where the rake is stabled) for a few clarifications on the rake, and only after I get them can we begin other procedures,” said Chandra. As CRS, Chandra is the top authority when it comes to giving approval for any new type of rake before it is put into operation on WR’s tracks

Source

The article says design specification of rake was such that its height would be 4265 mm which is suitable for both WR & CR. However during its manufacturing it “reached” 4295 mm. How is a mystery. If this is true, then it is a huge faux pas that shouldn’t have happened under any circumstances.

Commuter runs pillar to post for an ATVM at Airoli

“The Hindu” newspaper has taken note of the saga of ATVM at Airoli.

Here is the news story published in the newspaper dated 28th December 2016.

MUMBAI: At a time when the government claims to be turning digital, citizen friendly and transparent, one commuter’s efforts for 16 months to get Central Railway to install at least one Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) on the eastern side of Airoli railway station have hit a dead end.

After Akshay Marathe’s repeated appeals to the authorities, including the Railway Minister, GM, DRM Mumbai and the Railway Ministry via Twitter went unheard, he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking reasons for the lack of an ATVM machine on the eastern side of the station. The application, however, has received no reply since it was filed in September.

“One branch of the organisation where I work is located in Airoli. The office is located in Airoli (East), which is a hotbed of IT parks. Every day, thousands of employees of these companies use Airoli station to reach their respective workplaces. Considering the heavy footfall it receives every day, one would expect the eastern entrance to have all the amenities required at a station. Forget a ticket booking office, Central Railway has not provided even an ATVM on the eastern side,” said Mr. Marathe.

He added that in order to use an ATVM, one needs to walk all the way to the booking office on the other side of station. In all, it is a five to six-minute walk from the eastern to the western side and back to platform. “That beats the whole purpose of providing the convenience of an ATVM.”

Mr. Marathe filed the online RTI application on September 15, asking why there was no action on his tweets, whether there were any plans to put up an ATVM at Airoli (East), and whether a feasibility study was carried out for the same. There was no reply to his appeal in the stipulated time, and the request has been transferred from one desk to another.

When contacted, A.K. Singh, the public relations officer for Central Railway, said Airoli has six ATVMs, which are all in working condition.

“But these are all on the western side of the station. And I am asking why there isn’t a single machine on the other side, for which I have not received a reply in the last 16 months,” said Mr. Marathe.

Link to the news

I hope CR authorities will take notice of this at least now.

Production of Pending MUTP-1 rakes resumes

In the year 2013, had first posted that few rakes from MUTP-1 quota were still not manufactured (link to post). I had also sought information about them under RTI act. After that, one 9 coach rake was manufactured a couple of years ago. I am happy to inform that the production of these missing rakes has resumed. The first of these rakes was spotted at Chennai by a fellow railway enthusiast. It will reach Central Railway in the first week of new year.

Two more rakes are expected after this. They will definitely help CR to phase out old coaches. I am glad that the railways finally decided to manufacture these coaches.